Mariafe Artacho / Taliqua Clancy Australia (7) def. Melissa Humana-Paredes / Sarah Pavan Canada (6) 21-16, 21-19 (36)
Mariafe Artacho, Australia – “The start is very crucial. You’ve got to start to start strong or else you find yourself catching up on every single point. We were focused on playing free, playing our game and enjoying the moment being out here. It was a lot of fun. We took risks, they worked out, it was pretty fun. We knew we can play at this level; it’s an honor for us to be here but I think we deserve it. Playing the Commonwealth Games Beach Volleyball the pressure was 10 times more. It’s always going to be a tough game against them but yes, we knew they had one on us so maybe they had a little more pressure than us.”
Taliqua Clancy, Australia – (Were they thinking of the Commonwealth Games rematch?): “To be honest, not too much. We’re still a fresh team and so any moment we can play the top teams in the world, we really relish them and take those opportunities when we get them. It brings out that free volleyball and it’s not that it makes it look easy, it’s never easy when you’re battling the top teams in the world.”
Melissa Humana-Paredes, Canada – “We didn’t play our best and Australia played OK, and we just have to pick it up for the next game for sure. All these games are going to be really hard with the top teams in the world. The next game is going to be just as hard, it’s never going to be easy, no one’s going to give you points. Each game is equally important, of course you want to win them all, you want to make it out of your pool. We’re just going to focus on one game at a time.”
Sarah Pavan, Canada – “They served really well, they put a lot of pressure on us. My passing wasn’t good enough. I didn’t take care of my sideout and we didn’t put enough pressure on them serving. They were in-system most of the game. If anything, we have to win for sure. There are going to be no easy matches. We’re going to have to grind through and figure it out.”